Barlingbo Helgedomen

Style: Belgian dark ale
Brewery: Barlingbo Bryggeri
Origin: Gotland
Size: 70cl
Alcohol: 9.3%
Price: 99kr
Systembolaget: 31534

The brewery began in 2014 with friends Jonny Warg and Niklas Gustavsson brewing in Jonny’s garage with a modest 50-liter setup.Based in Visby,the brewery also runs a restaurant called “Bryggeriet Mat & Malt”. This beer has been made using Gotland grown hops and has brewed in a traditional Trappist style. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a distinct lack of information about his beer online, so exact facts were a little scarce. However, I was looking forward to seeing what the representative beer from Gotland could do.

This was a clear bronze colour hen poured, with a heavy and thick head that covered the glass and held well. The first hit was a lot of metal, with a big coin aroma noted from quite far away. The metal was almost so overpowering it covered the other aromas except for a slight caramel note. The taste was better, with toffee, brown sugar and honey hits all presents along with the metal. The body was medium to thick for the style, with the alcohol making a slight boozy note to the beer. It was rather drying, leaving a hint of dried fruit and brown sugar on the palate. The carbonation was fair to high, with the body correct for the style.

This was a rather big, boozy beer that had some great components. The taste was nice, as was the aftertaste. The big metallic hit in the aroma was slightly off putting, though this did seem to fade after a few minutes. All in all, it was a nice beer but maybe not one I would buy again.